Philosophical Quarterly launch 2012 Prize Essay Competition

The Philosophical Quarterly invites submissions for its 2012 international prize essay competition, the topic of which is ‘Philosophy and the Expressive Arts’.

The author of the winning entry will receive £1500. The closing date for submissions is 1st November 2012.

Download Submission Guidelines

From Plato on, philosophy has had an uneasy relationship with expressive arts such as narrative, poetry, drama, music, painting, and now film. If philosophy today can learn from science, can it learn from the arts as well– or even instead? If so, what can it learn?

Does expressive art access truths, particularly ethical truths, that cannot be expressed any other way? If it does, what can ethicists and other philosophers say about these truths? If it does not, what differentiates expressive from merely decorative art?

Some philosophers insist with Wittgenstein that “whatever can be said at all can be said clearly”. In that case, are artistic uses of language such as metaphor and imagery just “colour”, as Frege called it – just ways of dressing up thoughts that philosophers, by contrast, should consider in their plainest possible form?

 

 

The Philosophical Quarterly launch prize essay competition

The Philosophical Quarterly invites submissions for its 2011 international prize essay competition, the topic of which is ‘Hume after 300 Years’.

2011 marks the tercentenary of the birth of David Hume. Entries are invited on all aspects of Hume’s philosophy. Particularly welcome will be essays on relatively neglected parts of Hume’s corpus: for example, his theory of space and time; his typology of the passions; the Treatise account of political obligation; the first (1741-42) volumes of Essays, Moral and Political; the second Enquiry; the Four Dissertations.

Essays should not be longer than 8,000 words, and should be typed in double spacing.

Electronic submission is preferred and contributions may be sent as email attachments to pq@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Most formats are acceptable, but PDF is preferred. Alternatively, non-electronic submissions may be sent to the address below.

Three copies of each essay are required and these will not be returned. All entries will be regarded as submissions for publication in The Philosophical Quarterly, and both winning and non-winning entries judged to be of sufficient quality will be published.

The closing date for submissions is 1st November 2011.

All submissions should be headed ‘The Emotions’ Prize Essay Competition (with the author’s name and address given in a covering letter, but NOT in the essay itself) and sent to:

The Journal Manager
The Philosophical Quarterly
University of St Andrews
KY16 9AR
Scotland,
UK

Defining Beauty: Dürer and Hume

“Defining Beauty: Albrecht Dürer at the Morgan” is a new exhibition currently being held at The Morgan Library and Museum. On display are drawings, prints and illustrated books which showcase the development of Dürer’s artistic style. Works include the engravings Adam and Eve (1504) and Melencolia I (1514) as well as a copy of Dürer’s “Four Books on Human Proportion” (1532-1534).

Dürer thought that he had attained artistic perfection with a number of his works. In a letter to a patron for whom Dürer had created a woodcut he says “Please let it be as it is. No one could improve it because it was done artistically and with care. Those who see it and who understand such matters will tell you so.” Dürer obviously considered himself to be a fine judge of the beautiful even though he could not explain what it was in particular that made an artwork beautiful. In another quote he says “What beauty is, I know not, though it adheres to many things.”

Two centuries later the philosopher David Hume was similarly interested in judgments of beauty. In his 1757 essay “Of the Standard of Taste” Hume investigates whether objective judgments of taste are possible and also how these judgments might be justified.

Interview: The Philosopher’s Toolkit

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Peter Fosl and Julian Baggini make complex and abstract philosophical work accessible to the uninitiated with their outstanding books The Philosopher’s Toolkit and The Ethics Toolkit. In this interview, Peter Fosl talks about what philosophy did for him, and why he is motivated to share what he calls  one of “the extremely good things” he has discovered in life.

The Philosopher’s Eye: Why did you decide to write The Philosopher’s Toolkit and The Ethics Toolkit?

Peter Fosl: I wrote them for two reasons, really.  First, I took up work on the toolkits to advance my project of bringing philosophy to as many people as possible. The second reason I became involved with the Toolkit projects was Julian Baggini. I had come to know Julian and his work through writing for The Philosophers’ Magazine (which he co-founded and edits). Julian has proven himself stunningly effective at bringing philosophy to a wide audience and doing so in a way that doesn’t dumb the material down.

FREE Syllabus: Some Questions in Hume’s Aesthetics

Teaching & Learning Guide for: Some Questions in Hume’s Aesthetics
By Christopher Williams, University of Nevada, Reno (December 2008)

Keywords:

Sections: Aesthetics & Philosophy of Art, History of Philosophy
Subjects: Philosophy, Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art
People: Hume, David
Key Topics: subjective, normativity, value

(See all Philosophy Compass ‘Teaching & Learning Guides‘)

FREE Syllabus: Moral Rationalism Vs. Moral Sentimentalism

Teaching & Learning Guide for: Moral Rationalism Vs. Moral Sentimentalism: Is Morality More Like Math or Beauty?
By Michael B. Gill, University of Arizona (January 2008)

Keywords:

Section: History of Philosophy
Subjects: Philosophy, History of Philosophy
People: Hobbes, Thomas , Hume, David
Key Topics: normativity, rationalism, relativism, value, morality

(See all  ‘Teaching & Learning Guides‘)

FREE Syllabus: The Analytic/Synthetic Distinction

Teaching & Learning Guide for: The Analytic/Synthetic Distinction
By Gillian Russell, Washington University in St Louis (December 2007)

Keywords:

Section: Logic & Language
Subjects: Philosophy, Logic and Language, Logic.
People: Quine, Willard , Kant, Immanuel , Frege, Gottlob , Hume, David
Key Topic: empiricism